TIPS AND TECHNIQUES

Thursday, May 11, 2023

Flying SeaGull Card

Do you ever wonder where people come up with their ideas for card folds? I know I do.  I have often thought of myself as being creative but then BAM I see something like this and think.......Why didn't I think of that? Then I think....how long did that take them to come up with that?  I mean seriously I can take an entire day deciding exactly what paper I want to use with a certain embellie.  Or a week to try and figure out what kind of card and paper I want to use with a unique looking button.  But figure out a new fold?  OMG it'll take me months of non stop thinking and I don't think my brain could handle that LOL.  Anyway this lovely lady Susan Campfield on YouTube shared this card back in February and called it the Flying Seagull card.  It is adorable and oh so easy to make.  This is the card closed.



I chose to have the wings close towards the back but you can also have them close to the front.  In which case you would be covering part of the front panel.  Since this is a sympathy card I did not want the words to be partially covered so I folded the wing part back.  When folded this card is a standard size of 4.24" x 5.5"



Signing the card can be done either on those inside white panels or on the back panels.

For the base pieces you need 2 pieces of card stock cut at 8.25" x 4.25"  and then scored at 2.25"...4"....& 6.25".  You also need 1 piece of cardstock cut at 4.25" x 4.25".   For layers you will need the following:

1 piece    4-1/8" x 4-1/8" solid
1 piece    4" x 4" patterned
2 pieces  2-1/8"  x 4-1/8" solid for out side wing pieces
2 pieces  2" x 4" patterned for out side wing pieces
2 pieces  1-5/8" x 4-1/8" solid for inside panel
2 pieces  1-1/2" x 4" patterned for inside panel
Center inside panels do not have layers unless you choose to do so.  Here are some pictures on how to assemble the base. Photo steps are top left right then bottom left right.



Both pieces are folded exactly the same but when assembling you will flip one so that the larger 2.25 sections are on the ends.  I held the middle on the back together with a little tape that I removed later.  It just makes it easier.  Watch the video for more details.

For the photos I used an orange piece for the 4.25 x 4.25 piece and I also outlined the edges on the white cardstock a bit since white on white is hard to see.  This is just to give you an idea of where the pieces are suppose to be lined up and glued down.  Again the video helps.

Then remove tape from the back and add your layers.  It's a beautifully easy card and I plan on making quite a few.

\Til next time............................................



















Sunday, May 7, 2023

About Time To Slim Down

 With Springs arrival I thought it was time to "Slim" down. Be a little more sleek.  A little more petite.  Whether tall or short slimmer is just appealing to me. Bright colors look better and busy prints aren't so overwhelming.  I mean think about it ....if you see an elephant in hot pink you say "WOW That's alot of pink !" But if that same pink is on a flamingo you think it's a beautiful color.  Same with prints, if a barn was fully painted with a floral Monet Painting you would think that's alot of flowers! But a 11x14 Monet floral painting would be quite pleasing to the eye.  So I decided it's time.  Time to get back to Slim.  So lets grab some coffee and a raised chocolate donut and get ready.  Oh wait..............you thought I meant weight?  As in diet? Hahahahaha...yeah right!  Not this gal!  I'm talking SLIM...as is SLIMLINE cards.

I have always been a fan of these.  I have also been making these before they became all the rage.  Mainly because I was very cheap back in the day (still quite thrifty).  My supplies were limited and I used standard and business envelopes due to the cost.  They were cheap.  I could jazz them up a bit with a rubber stamp so they didn't look so plain but that is what I used therefore all my cards were slimline.  Though they didn't have an official name back then.

I had decided since I had been on a fancy fold roll lately I thought I'd get back to my basic.  Simple but in my opinion fancy anyway Slimline cards.  I wanted to have a few generic cards to have on hand so "Thinking of You" and Just for You" cards seemed appropriate. Aggghhhh.....ok I can't break away.  I have to do a Slimline a Fancy Fold first   LOL.  It's still simple though and I get to use some G45 papers.


Here it is.  A simple Slimline Step card.  I used one 8x8 sheet of the Graphic 45 Floral Shop Collection on this card with plenty of left overs.  As you can see I also did not use very many embellishments.  I kept the card rather simple.  The 2 3d flowers are stickers I had picked up from the Dollar Tree probably over a year ago and just recently found in my stash. 

Now to the easy part.  I started with an 8 1/2 x 7 piece of 110 lb card stock and with the 8 1/2" at the top of the cutting board I cut a line 1" in from the edge from the 1"mark to the 4 1/2" mark on both sides as seen in the photo below.


I then scored from the edge on both sides at 1", 2" and 4 1/2" and then also scored between the two cut lines at 3 1/2".  Above the marked piece of cardstock in the above photo is what the card will look like after you make the folds.  The side pieces will fold mountain , valley, mountain and the center will be mountain.

DSP needed are as follows:

(2) pieces 7/8 x 2-3/8

(2) pieces 7/8 x 7/8

(1) piece 7/8 x 6-3/8

(1) piece 2-3/8 x 6-3/8


My picture is obviously different paper since I already had my card made before I started this post but you get the idea.  I used double-sided cardstock for this making it simple to coordinate the paper without much thinking.  This also gives you the option of changing how you want to put your card together.  As you can see in the photo below, I decided to use the reverse sides to put the card together.


Now look how different this looks using brighter more fun like papers.  I really liked the florals but wondered how this would turn out using other designs that were more playful or religious or Christmas themed.  I think they all turned out great.  They are so quick and take very little paper.  Now Yes I know....you still use a sheet of 8.5 x 11 of 110 lb cardstock for the base and have a scrap of 4 x 8.5 which is an odd size.  But you could get (4) 2x4 tags out of that and use up the rest of the DSP from the card to decorate those and put the tags in your stash for when you need a gift tag for something.  See that's what I do.  But then again I'm a TAG NUT!


All 6 of these turned out pretty cute.  Now I am off to put together some tags with all those scraps from the last 7 Fancy Fold Slimline Cards.  So until next time...........................................